The invention relates to an integrated circuit for realizing a television device or peripheral television monitor.
It also relates to a TV decoding and receiving device provided with an integrated circuit comprising inter alia unscrambling means, conditional access means, demultiplexing means, and a microprocessor.
It finally relates to a connecting interface between a peripheral television monitor device and a television decoding and receiving device.
At the present moment most of the connections for the transport of a data flow called xe2x80x9cMPEG2 Transport Streamxe2x80x9d inside a TV set or monitor are of the parallel type, and it is necessary to provide comparatively complicated switching means involving a large number of conductors so as to be able to send or receive different data flows towards or from different receiving or transmitting members.
In the future there will be more and more connections of the serial type. Nevertheless, it remains necessary to have available connections of the parallel type so as to ensure the compatibility with existing circuits. The invention has for its object to offer extensive connection possibilities without using too many conductors, for example:
to facilitate the use of several unscrambling and conditional access modules referred to as xe2x80x9cDVB Common Interfacexe2x80x9d in a receiver,
generally, to facilitate the use of more external pieces of equipment.
To achieve this, an integrated circuit comprises a switching matrix controlled by a microprocessor and designed for transmitting or receiving different data flows of the MPEG type towards or from different receiving or transmitting members, said matrix comprising connections of the parallel type as well as connections of the serial type.
Multiple inputs or outputs of the serial type are advantageously constructed on the basis of a parallel connection, while the circuit is provided with means for controlling the application of signals of the serial type to conductors designed for the signals of the parallel type. For example, if a connection of the parallel type requires eleven conductors and a connection of the serial type requires four conductors, it is possible for twelve conductors to constitute either a connection of the parallel type comprising eleven of these twelve conductors or three connections of the serial type comprising four conductors each.
A TV receiving and decoding device, or an interface between a peripheral TV monitor and a TV receiving and decoding device advantageously comprises an integrated circuit according to the invention.
These and other, more detailed aspects of the invention will be explained further below in a description of an embodiment which forms a non-limitative example.